Tax Day: A Cause Not Worth Celebrating

Today, April 15, is known as “tax day”—the deadline to file one’s income taxes. We are compelled by the government to furnish detailed, personal information regarding our economic activities for the year 2013, 100 years after the passage of the 16th amendment.

That’s right: this country has had a constitutionally authorized federal income tax for less than half the duration of its existence. Despite its now longstanding existence in America, its ideological proponents include folks like Karl Marx who, in his Communist Manifesto, listed “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax” as one of the central planks of his central planning philosophy.

It’s no surprise that his sympathizers in the progressive era of the early 20th century acted earnestly to see this policy adopted in America. It began, like most new government programs, in modest fashion; the income tax was only a small part of total government revenue. That changed after World War I, when the income tax furnished a significant portion of total taxes. Within a matter of years, it became an irreplaceable and largely accepted method of financing the federal government’s operations.

Of course, the income tax is only one of many government mandates laying claim to our property. Here’s a frightening—though partial—list of taxes to which we are made subject:

Accounts Receivable Tax

Building Permit Tax

Capital Gains Tax

CDL license Tax

Cigarette Tax

Corporate Income Tax

Court Fines (indirect taxes)

Dog License Tax

Federal Income Tax

Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)

Fishing License Tax

Food License Tax

Fuel permit tax

Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon)

Hunting License Tax

Inheritance Tax Interest expense (tax on the money)

Inventory tax IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)

IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)

Liquor Tax

Local Income Tax

Luxury Taxes

Marriage License Tax

Medicare Tax

Property Tax

Real Estate Tax

Septic Permit Tax

Service Charge Taxes

Social Security Tax

Road Usage Taxes (Truckers)

Sales Taxes

Recreational Vehicle Tax

Road Toll Booth Taxes

School Tax

State Income Tax

State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)

Telephone federal excise tax

Telephone federal universal service fee tax

Telephone federal, state and

local surcharge taxes

Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax

Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax

Telephone state and local tax

Telephone usage charge tax

Toll Bridge Taxes

Toll Tunnel Taxes

Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)

Trailer Registration Tax

Utility Taxes

Vehicle License Registration Tax

Vehicle Sales Tax

Watercraft Registration Tax

Well Permit Tax

Workers Compensation Tax

Americans spend more on taxes than they do on food, clothing, and housing combined. It is presumed that the government is entitled to a portion of our property—and that failure to cough up will land us in jail (financed by others’ taxes, of course). Truly, the power to tax is the power to destroy.

While individuals should be required to pay for services they utilize, the degree to which citizens are taxed today is both egregious and unjust. Private property rights demand protection—and not violation—of one’s income and wealth. As such, it can easily and authoritatively be stated that the government does not protect each person’s property. In fact, it is one of the chief violators.

Invasive and extensive taxation policies enable the government to exceed its proper bounds, opening the door for programs and policies that otherwise would not exist. They erode each person’s privacy, requiring vast amounts of information on each individual. They siphon billions of dollars from the market economy, funneling it through an ineffective and wasteful bureaucracy and sending it to unproductive and politically connected coffers. They waste time and increase stress in mandating the completion of lengthy and convoluted forms to be compliant.

Do today’s tax laws protect property? Do they ensure privacy? Do they promote liberty? Do they operate with transparency and efficiency, ferreting out fraud and waste? Are they all necessary for the government to pursue its limited and proper objectives?

The answers to the above questions are quite obvious, and together indicate the burdensome and objectionable nature of modern taxation policy.

The Fair Tax is (1) more.efficient to collect, (2) less invasive/intrusive, & (3) better aligned with important principles like saving & investing.

JonathanGal

Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme that will drag America into the financial gutter. There is a very good reason that Ponzi’s are illegal in the private sector. The Government should follow the same rules.